Scientific Details

Interpreting fin count meristics.Spines are in Roman numerals and soft rays are in Arabic numerals. Spines and rays that are continuous in one fin are separated by a comma. Fin sections are separated by semicolons.

Order level detail.A diverse group of bottom-dwelling fishes with a bony ridge, or stay across the cheek connecting the bones under the eye with the gill cover. Most species have spines projecting from bony ridges on the head and some have spines projecting from the gill cover. Many species are well-camouflaged ambush predators, often with elaborate cirri, filaments, leaf-like appendages and spiny ridges enhancing their camouflage. Scales are present or absent. Gurnards (also called searobins) have a pair of rostral spines projecting from the snout, large colourful wing-like pectoral fins and crawl over the bottom on their finger-like pelvic-fin rays. Many species have venomous spines.

Family level detail.Scorpionfish relatives with a compressed body, a large prominent head, large eyes, a large mouth, with rough scales over most of body, strong ridges and spines on the head, strong venomous fin spines, 13 long robust dorsal-fin spines that are much longer that the fin rays, 6-8 soft dorsal-fin rays and large pectoral fins. Bottom-dwelling fishes, living on the bottom in tropical and temperate environments of the Indo-Pacific; ambush predators, feeding on fishes and crustaceans.

Biology

Although common, especially in moderately deep waters, this species is rarely seen by anglers. It is taken as bycatch in commercial trawls. The venomous fin spines can inflict a very painful wound. The species is no longer found in Port Phillip (Victoria), although there are confirmed records from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.